“For a long time, even when I was going to school, we were taught that the structure of the human brain was basically fixed by the time we got to our early 20s. But it’s become clear in the last few decades that in fact, even the adult human brain is quite malleable. And our [...]
Archive for the ‘SciTech’ Category
The future is coming and it’s taking no prisoners
Working as a Web professional, whether you are a designer, programmer, or social media specialist, one thing is certain. Only the strong evolving survive. I work in all three of those capacities both for my full-time job and as a freelancer and have seen advancements happening so fast that it is practically impossible to keep [...]
Rant: Why I believe African tech needs an ombudsman
First, what in the world is an ombudsman? By traditional definition, an ombudsman is a person who attempts to hear out complaints between two entities and investigates whether or not there is a case to be heard. Many newspapers (remember those?) have an ombudsman that receives letters to the editor that are usually submitted by [...]
African Centre for Mobile Financial Inclusion gearing up for launch
Since late 2009 I have been working with an international group of ambitious mobile technology professionals in areas ranging from mobile banking to microfinance. We are banding together to form an organization called “African Centre for Mobile Financial Inclusion”. Our official launch is coming in May 2010, with our founder, Emmanuel Okoegwale from Nigeria, leading [...]
Graduating Crowdsourcing into Turksourcing: Employing Opportunity
This is an excellent blog post that I couldn’t help but write about. In “From Netsourcing to Crowdsourcing to Turksourcing Crisis Information” @patrickmeier uses the example of Ushahidi and asks the proverbial question, “How do we move from netsourcing to crowdsourcing and on to turksourcing?” In his post, Patrick Meier talks about how Ushahidi was [...]
“Enemies of the Internet” alive and kicking
If there’s one thing that gets my blood curdling, it is Internet censorship. Reporters Without Borders just released their annual report on Internet freedom & censorship entitled, “Enemies of the Internet”. Among the violators: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Also important to note: Among the [...]
Are you a programmer? The Kasumi Project needs your help
The Kamusi Project has been an online living and breathing Swahili dictionary for some time now. I have used it numerous times myself. The project is a collaboration of two organizations, the Kamusi Project International (KPI) and Kamusi Project USA (KPUSA), “dedicated to the creation of dictionary and learning resources for African languages.” Lately, the [...]
Have you heard? Tech incubators growing in Africa
In case you haven’t heard, tech is growing across the continent of Africa. And, no, not just the typical innovation hubs of South Africa and Nigeria. Tech is spreading all over the place to varying degrees, the latest being the new iHub in Nairobi that opens this week. Computerworld starts the conversation: “Availability of affordable [...]
